King and Queen County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in the U.S. state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, located in the state's Middle Peninsula on the eastern edge of the Richmond, VA,

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,608. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is King and Queen Court House.

History

King and Queen County was established in 1691 from New Kent County, and was named for King William III and Queen Mary II of England. King and Queen County is notable as one of the few counties in the United States to have recorded a larger population in the 1790 census than in 2020, this has been the case since 1920. Among the earliest settlers of King and Queen County was Roger Shackelford, an English emigrant from Old Alresford, Hampshire, after whom the county's village of Shacklefords is named. Shackelford's descendants continued to live in the county, and by the nineteenth century had intermarried with several local families, including Taliaferro, Beverley, Thornton, and Sears. In 1762 when he was 11, future president

James Madison James Madison (June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison was popularly acclaimed as the ...

was sent to a boarding school run by Donald Robertson at the Innes plantation in King and Queen County. Robertson was a Scottish teacher who tutored numerous prominent plantation families in the South. From Robertson, Madison learned mathematics, geography, and modern and classical languages, becoming especially proficient in Latin. He attributed his instinct for learning "largely to that man (Robertson).""James Madison's Biography". The Montpelier Foundation. Retrieved March 25, 2013. At age 16, Madison returned to his father's Montpelier estate in Orange County. On March 2, 1864, the Battle of Walkerton, an engagement of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, took place here, resulting in a Confederate victory. Virginia Longest, national director of the Nursing Service for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in the late 1970s, was a county native. Richard and Mildred Loving lived in a remote part of the county in the 1960s, hoping to avoid arrest by the authorities while their legal challenge to Virginia's

anti-miscegenation laws Anti-miscegenation laws are laws that enforce racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage sometimes, also criminalizing sex between members of different races. In the United Stat ...

moved through the courts. For many years, county publications noted that the county lacked any traffic lights. This is now no longer the case, as a traffic light has been installed on U.S. Route 360 and Virginia State Route 14 at St. Stephen's Church. Even in the 21st century, King and Queen County contains no incorporated towns or cities, and remains one of Virginia's most sparsely populated counties. For example, as of 2024 it does not have a grocery store.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (3.4%) is water. Measuring in length, it is one of the longest counties in the state of Virginia, as well as one of the narrowest, measuring less than across at its widest point.

Adjacent Counties

* Caroline County – north * Essex County – northeast * Middlesex County – east * Gloucester County – southeast * James City County – south * New Kent County – southwest * King William County – west

Major highways

* * *

Demographics

2020 census

2000 Census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 6,630 people residing in the county; these included 2,673 households and 1,897 families. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 3,010 housing units, at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 61.22%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 35.67%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1.42% Native American, 0.27% Asian, 0.02%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.15% from other races, and 1.25% from two or more races. 0.87% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. Of the 2,673 households, 26.80% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.60% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 13.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.00% were non-families. 24.60% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 2.94. The

median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

age in the county was 41 years, with 22.70% under the age of 18, 7.00% from 18 to 24, 26.80% from 25 to 44, 27.00% from 45 to 64, and 16.40% who were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females, there were 95.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.50 males. The

median household income The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of und ...

was $35,941, and the median family income was $40,563. Males had a median income of $33,217, versus $21,753 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $17,236. 10.90% of the population and 7.80% of families were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

. Of the total people living in poverty, 8.10% were under the age of 18 and 14.80% were 65 or older.

Government

Board of Supervisors

* Buena Vista District: Carolyn R. Billups (I) * Newtown District: Sherrin C. Alsop (I) * Shanghai District: Marie H. Norman (I) * St. Stephens Church District: James Lawrence Simpkins (I) * Stevensville District: Mark R. Berry (I)

Constitutional officers

* Clerk of the Circuit Court: Hattie M. Robinson (I) * Commissioner of the Revenue: Kelly N. Lumpkin (I) * Commonwealth's Attorney: Meredith D. Adkins (I) * Sheriff: William Balderson (I) * Treasurer: Stephanie Sears (I) King and Queen County is represented by Republican Richard H. Stuart and Ryan T. McDougle in the Virginia Senate, Republican M. Keith Hodges in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two houses of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

, and Republican Robert J. "Rob" Wittman in the U.S. House of Representatives. Presidentially, King and Queen County is a bellwether county of sorts. It correctly predicted the winner of all but four presidential elections between 1928 and 2024, voting for losing candidates only in 1968,

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Communities

Census-designated Place * King and Queen Court House Unincorporated Communities * Newtown * St. Stephen's Church * Shacklefords

References

{{authority control Virginia counties 1691 establishments in the Colony of Virginia